Locator Style Updates

Posted by lcleveland in MySLP SaaS, Squarespace, Store Locator Plus, Web Presence, Weebly, Wix, WordPress, WPSLP

A built-in feature on all Store Locator Plus products from the free WPSLP downloadable plugin to the fully managed MySLP service is one-click deployment of new interface styles. Our locator Style Gallery server is updated form time-time-time with new styles you can try as well as tweaks to existing styles.

Today’s Updates

We cleaned up the styling for the hours that are displayed in the results listing , placing them on their own line in the results output. This update is available to all MySLP and WPSLP users.

We also cleaned up the Directory Landing Page for users that employ the directory feature for WPSLP Power.

The change is immediately available to the following locator styles:

Updating Styles

Don’t worry, if you selected a locator style already it will not change even if we update your selected style on our server. If you want to update your selected style to or latest version you must select a different style from the plugin gallery first, then re-select the style you were using.

Keep in mind that some styles in our Style Gallery will change your locator settings. The styles that change settings clearly note that they will do so in the description. Read the descriptions before clicking that “Activate” button.

How To Select A New Style

For MySLP start from Advanced Options in your dashboard.

For WPSLP start from Store Locator Plus on your admin login.

Go to Settings > View

In the Appearance section you will see a list of available styles from our Style Gallery.

Hover over the bottom edge of the “card” showing the style information and click the Select button when it appears.

How To Update Your Style

Follow the above steps and start by selecting a locator style that you are not currently using.

Follow the above steps and re-select the style you were using originally. This will re-load the style and the settings from our gallery server.

Store Locator Plus 4.9.2 Delete Locations

Posted by lcleveland in Map Software, MySLP SaaS, Store Locator Plus, WPSLP

Store Locator Plus 4.9.2 patches several things including the delete locations bug. Other fixes include several patches to address WordPress 4.8.3 introduced issues with the database query engine; the changes require intelligence in the plugin to support pre-4.8.3 WordPress installations. We’ve also addressed an issue with memory consumption if logging is enabled and large location lists are being imported.

These patches are available today for WordPress and will be in our year-end update to MySLP.

We are continuing to improve the performance and resilience for sites with large lists of locations (10,000+ locations) and have several new upgrades on the way.

We are also working on improving our Style Gallery and adding features to allow users to create more interesting and modern interfaces with better responsive design support. More updates are coming over the next few months.

If you have questions or comments please contact us.

Why Good JavaScript Code Is Critical To Your Locator

Posted by CiCi in Map Software, MySLP SaaS, Store Locator Plus, WPSLP

Whether you are using our MySLP SaaS service or our WordPress plugins for Store Locator Plus, having a web page that is loading “clean” JavaScript code is CRITICAL to the functionality of your locator. Most web pages today, and certainly those including an interactive map, are far removed from static HTML and images. Today’s web pages are full-on applications. They are programs that are running locally on your device to draw a page that looks similar to the old-time static HTML pages but with a lot more cool interactions; like maps.

While these new interfaces are cool and certainly make the web easier to use they come at a cost. It requires that all of the little mini-applets that you are loading on a page to show to your users play nicely together. Every single interactive component like that Google Ads sidebar, the Recaptcha validation and maps are all separate programs that are playing in the same “pool”. The problem with this is that it is very easy for any one of those components to “go haywire” and spoil the fun for everyone else.

Part of the issue is that for most web page builders you have ZERO control over WHEN you get your turn to jump in the pool. Do you get in first? Or do you get in after someone left their “code turd” in the pool? How well your app runs can depend a lot on WHEN it gets to run. To make matters more complicated an interactive page may not “sprout new problems” until AFTER the user starts interacting with the page. Maybe it happens when a user clicks on an ad that is being tracked which then breaks the code and all subsequent JavaScript is running in a “polluted pool”.

Often the Store Locator Plus map is the most visual an interactive element on the page. It happens to be what most people notice first when JavaScript is broken. You won’t notice if your ad-click is not being tracked but you sure as heck notice when you try to look up locations and the map doesn’t change. Often the cry goes out “you broke the locator” when many times it is something else that broke well before the locator had a chance to do its work.

Check For JavaScript Code Errors

Use your web browser developer tools. All modern browsers have this functionality and it can give you some clues as to what is really going on. If you see errors in the console you will want to clean this up and see if it resolves the issues with the locator.

Safari

Go to Safari | Preferences | Advanced and click “Show Develop menu in menu bar”.

To check your JavaScript Console go to Develop | Show JavaScript Console

Look for any red exclamation marks and look at the error logs to suss out JavaScript code issues.

Firefox

Older versions of Firefox have the web developer tools enabled by default. If you do not see the Web Developer menu option check under the Settings menu a this may be disabled by default in future releases.

To view possible JavaScript errors:

Go to Tools | Web Developer | Web Console

Learn More In This Video

Check out this video to learn more about the technical details of why JavaScript loading order and errors in other JavaScript code is important.

If you are not seeing JavaScript code errors on your page and your Store Locator Plus map is still not working please contact us!